Tim Kaine, Va. Dems talk early voting News | 4
How to prep for JMU football’s home opener Sports | 16
Spooky tattoo shop opens downtown Culture | 10 ASL courses should be more accessible Opinion | 18
With JMU football’s first home game right around the corner, there are some important tips and rules for attendees to know.
Check out page 16 for advice on tickets, how to properly throw streamers and even what color to wear to the game.
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The Breeze, the student-run newspaper of James Madison University, serves student, faculty and staff readership by reporting news involving the campus and local community. The Breeze strives to be impartial and fair in its reporting and firmly believes in First Amendment rights.
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Mauser & Libby Addison
By MORGAN BLAIR
The Breeze
Both local and state Democrats gathered Sunday night in the Festival Conference Center to urge listeners to vote early and endorse candidates on this year’s ticket.
The Harrisonburg Democrats, the Rockingham County Democrats and the JMU College Democrats hosted numerous city council, school board and congressional candidates at its annual Democratic Labor Day Celebration. Among the attendees were 11th District Sen. Tim Kaine and VA CD-6 District House of Representatives candidate Ken Mitchell. Also there were Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed and Vice Mayor Laura Dent, alongside school board and city council candidates.
Former Virginia House of Delegates Candidate and JMU alumna Esther Nizer (’03) emceed the event, introducing candidates with anecdotes and making the occasional quip about punctuality. The hot topic of the night was early voting — reiterated by both Nizer and many candidates — which begins Sept. 20.
Local candidates share insight on political values
The event began with an introduction by Nizer, who also highlighted the silent auction that took place to raise money for the Harrisonburg Democrats. Dinner was then served, followed by speeches by Reed, Dent and city council candidate Nasser Alsaadun.
Reed and Dent listed their accolades accumulated during their tenures as mayor and vice mayor, while Alsaadun — a former JMU adjunct faculty member and owner of Harrisonburg restaurant and convenience store Babylon — discussed his experience in Harrisonburg as a refugee, his time as an interpreter for the U.S. Army and his work with the Church World Service.
Following the city candidates, three independent Harrisonburg School Board candidates spoke. Timothy Howley led the school board section of the night and discussed his stance as “pro-book, pro-student, proteachers and pro-public school.” This was done in reference to the current Rockingham County School Board’s book ban, its recent policies about dress codes and flags, and similar actions taken by other school boards nationwide as the reason for his candidacy.
“I cannot watch our leaders create chaos and sow discourse for their own political gain,” Howley said. “There are serious achievement gaps in our classrooms. It’s hard to hire and retain teachers, substitutes, bus drivers, teacher assistants and all personnel who work in our schools. These are things that we should be exploring solutions to in good faith.”
All three school board candidates said being parents played a role in their decisions to run for their positions. Harrisonburg school board candidate Hazzar Pastor Perdomo spoke about her experience as someone who immigrated to the United States and Harrisonburg as a child and went to schools in the local area,
and her wish to make schools “sanctuaries” for students.
The final candidate to speak, Matt Snyder, who’s also a volunteer assistant coach for JMU women’s lacrosse, discussed his time as president of Spotswood Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), his experience in the Rockingham County community overall and how he felt it would help his work.
“I’ve worked as a PTO president [of Spotswood Elementary School] for the past four years,” Snyder said. “The issues that matter to me are supporting students and supporting staff, not banning books. Really helping the teachers, I think, is a huge thing, and just bridging the gap within the community into the schools.”
Chair of the Harrisonburg Democratic Committee Alleyn Harned said the committee was “lucky” to have a state figure like Kaine come speak at its celebration,
especially considering his schedule of over 200 campaign events.
“Democrats strongly value labor and what the labor movement has brought to America, and there are a lot of events that are happening on Labor Day weekend in Virginia,” Harned said. “[Getting Kaine to attend] was a lot of asking and hoping.”
For Harned, a reason to not vote for the Republican ticket is because of the values it represents — namely, incumbent 6th District Representative Ben Cline previously objected to the 2020 election results, and former President Donald Trump told evangelical voters they “wouldn’t have to vote again” if they elected him.
“Obviously, there’s a slew of issues I care about,” Harned said. “But being lied to and being gaslit and then having a riotous, violent event was unbelievable and very frustrating for me, and so that is the thing that I most object to.”
Virginia representatives show off Democratic pride
Kaine’s speech followed the night’s themes, such as early voting and optimism about the Democratic party. He started his speech by praising Nizer, Harrisonburg, the Harrisonburg area and Mitchell before applauding the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz presidential ticket. He specifically mentioned his relationship working with Harris in the Senate after his own run as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee during the 2016 election.
“[Harris] finds a problem — a big one, gathers stakeholders on both sides of the aisle, challenges everybody to go big — not small, persists until she gets a result, and when you get the result, then you start to see peoples’ lives improve,” Kaine said. “That is who Kamala Harris is, and that’s the kind of president she’s going to be.”
Kaine encouraged attendees to not only vote early but to push others to vote early as well.
“[Voting early] is convenient,” Kaine said. “If you wait till the last day, the weather could be bad, the traffic could be bad, the lines could be long. Instead, with 45 days of early voting, you get to pick both the time and the way to vote that’s most convenient.”
Kaine also said voting early gives the voter “insurance” that their vote will be cast and any possible glitches or mistakes on their or on the registrar ’s part will have time to be rectified.
Gaylene Kanoyton, first Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, spoke about the “energetic” climate in the Democratic Party, specifically about her experiences at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last month.
Kanoyton joked that she’d been asked if the animated attendees had been served drinks at the DNC in Chicago. However, she said it wasn’t alcohol that made everyone so excited, but it was “just one of the most energetic conventions” she had ever been to. She compared it to the 2008 DNC when the party nominated Obama as its presidential candidate. 2008 had been her first convention and one Kaine also attended.
“[During the 2008 convention] we were in a stadium of 80,000 people, and when they announced Barack Obama to be the nominee, the whole stadium went quiet,” Kanoyton said. “This incredible ticket that we have was no different. I felt the same way, with joy as what we have in this campaign.”
Mitchell said one of the issues most important to him is women’s reproductive rights. He said he feels Republican candidates such as Trump have started changing their stances on topics like abortion since Harris took on the Democrats’ presidential nomination.
By EMMA NOTARNICOLA & K. MAUSER
The Breeze
Carrier Library is on track to officially open in fall 2026, with its construction crew uncovering historic decorations during the renovation process, as well as updating accessibility accommodations.
Director of Communications and Outreach for JMU Libraries
Kristen Shuyler said the construction crews are making “fantastic” progress, with major construction ending in December 2025.
“It’ll be a welcoming space,” Shuyler said. “It’ll be modern. It’ll be gorgeous and classic.”
Shuyler said Carrier’s construction crew uncovered some “beautiful decorations” from 1939 on the tops of the columns throughout the oldest part of Carrier that had been hidden since the 1960s. She described these new decorations as “beautiful” and “gorgeous” pieces of JMU’s history that should be preserved.
Carrier Library’s architects had the same idea and made efforts to preserve these historic decorations by making “small adjustments” to the original building’s floor plan to allow the tops of all the columns to be visible, Shuyler said.
This alteration to the construction plan allows the building’s history to prevail with the addition of the “modern new part” the new construction brings, she added.
Carrier has needed an update for some time, especially because its size led it to be frequently “overcrowded,” and it
had some “accessibility issues” that needed to be fixed, Shuyler said. She added that JMU worked closely with design architects to make sure Carrier will be accessible and “better” than the standard for ADA-compliant, she said.
Shuyler said the renovated Carrier not only solves all these issues but also adds more feature — the library will have “lots of natural light,” as well as many aspects found in a traditional library with “elements that are for the future needs.”
“It’s going to be an outstanding facility and one that is what you would expect for an institution like James Madison,” Vice President for Administration and Finance Towana Moore said in an August press release.
In the meantime, Shuyler said students can still rely on JMU’s four additional library spaces for materials or study spaces: JMU Libraries Express, Rose Library, the Music Library and the Educational Technology and Media Center.
The game will change when Carrier Library reopens. With an expanded floor plan, updated student and faculty resources, and a connection to JMU’s historical values, Shuyler said it will be a place where students from any major or discipline “can come together and work collaboratively” to exchange ideas and creativity.
“It’s more than just a building,” Shuyler said. “It’s a department that touches every building on campus.”
“It’ll be a welcoming space ... It’ll be modern. It’ll be gorgeous and classic.”
JMU Libraries, Director of Communications and Outreach
CONTACT Emma Notarnicola at notarnef@dukes.jmu.edu and K. Mauser at breezenews@gmail.com. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on X @TheBreezeJMU and on Instagram @BreezeJMU.
By LIBBY ADDISON
The Breeze
Beginning this semester, JMU students can pay to have their laundry done for them instead of washing it themselves.
JMU has partnered with University Cleaners — a service for Virginia students based out of Lexington — to provide laundry services to any interested on-campus students.
Julie Merryman, the assistant director for the Office of Residence Life (ORL)’s business operations, wrote in an emailed statement to The Breeze that the request for a laundry service came from JMU students themselves. This was relayed to Vice President for Student Affairs Tim Miller, and the request was then included in a housing survey conducted by the ORL. Virginia Tech also “highly recommended” its laundry services to JMU’s campus, Merryman said.
University Cleaners President Chad Mayr said the organization is a family-owned dry cleaning operation that prioritizes serving Virginians. Other colleges that are patrons of University Cleaners include Washington and Lee University, U.Va. and now JMU. University Cleaners is already familiar with JMU’s campus, as it has been cleaning the Marching Royal Dukes’ uniforms for several years, Mayr added.
Mayr said his desire to help Virginia college students began when he witnessed his four children start college. He saw his children’s anxiety firsthand while they were freshmen: juggling their academic workload, relationships, learning about the community and simultaneously grappling with the “challenges that can happen” in the laundry room.
The average pricing per academic year for on-campus students’ laundry plans is $915 for 20 lbs and $1,120 for 30 lbs, and the amounts are billed monthly, Mayr said. University Cleaners follows the undergraduate academic calendar, providing its services once a week for 30 weeks total, Mayr said. The cleaning service doesn’t run during finals week or during winter and spring breaks, he added.
“Depending on what serves the student best, we have different options,” Mayr said.
Clients will then receive a laundry bag that will fit either 20 or 30 lbs depending on their chosen plan and can drop it off in their residence hall for weekly pick up. Merryman said these students will receive a text when their laundry is done.
“University Cleaners has a proven process of marking students’ laundry and washing it in netted bags,” Merryman said. “They use technology to track the bags throughout the process from pick up, all the way through delivery.”
University Cleaners does offer dry cleaning and special care for items, Mayr added, but an extra charge would be added to the student’s monthly bill.
Through a process called “Chemo-Thermal Disinfection,” a certified cleaning process that “meets the requirements necessary to kill both category A (bacteria and fungi) and B (viruses) agents,” according to the businesses’ website, University Cleaners is able to further sanitize students’ clothes without damaging the material alongside washing and drying.
“When the clothes go in the dryer, one staff member is taking them out of the dryer, making sure there’s nothing left in the dryer — like missing socks,” Mayr said.
All of University Cleaners’ laundry processing is done in Lexington, the majority of their staff being local adults, Mayr said.
Looking forward, Merryman said she’s “really excited” about the University Cleaner’s Give Back program — once University Cleaners reaches 85 contracts and 30 plans are sold on campus, a student in financial aid, selected by ORL, will be donated a free laundry plan.
CONTACT Libby Addison at breezenews@gmail.com. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on X @TheBreezeJMU and on Instagram @BreezeJMU.
By JOELLE MCKENZIE
The Breeze
In its second Tuesday meeting of the academic year, the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate passed a resolution supporting the implementation of the Okanagan Charter at JMU, which was previously announced to take effect Oct. 8.
Student Body President and senior Brielle Lacroix said Okanagan Charter is a program that is part of a health-promoting network of roughly 250-270 colleges, 28 of which have implemented the Okanagan Charter. The program focuses on prioritizing health on college campuses by giving universities a framework which they can build upon.
The name of the Okanagan Charter comes from the indigenous nation hailing from Canada.
Lacroix said there were two calls to action for JMU regarding the Charter: to include health in all university policies and to be a global partner for health collaboration.
The Okanagan Nation places importance on the environment that someone inhabits when they become sick, Lacroix said, which the SGA emphasized in its resolution supporting JMU’s adoption of the charter.
“When people get sick, we look at the person and we say, ‘Well, what’s wrong with the person? Why are they sick?’ Instead of looking at the environment that they live in and asking, ‘What’s making them sick?’” Lacroix said.
Lacroix presented the resolution, and Student Representative to the Board of Visitors junior Sydney Stafford helped her draft and submit it.
“I think this charter is a wonderful way to kind of commemorate JMU’s effort to provide health services to students of the larger JMU community,” Sen. and junior Rebecca McCann said.
CONTACT Joelle McKenzie at mckenzjl@dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on X @TheBreezeJMU and on Instagram @breezejmu.
During Kaine’s speech, Sam Nickels, a retired non-profit worker and local, stood in front of his first-row table in a silent protest with his wife to show support for Palestinians he said he felt weren’t given the same amount of attention during the DNC as Israelis received. The couple held up a sign for Kaine’s speech that read “Stand with Palestine.”
“I knew that Sen. Kaine was coming to speak, and I had approached him previously, and the kinds of responses that I heard from him but also from Democratic leaders during the DNC, were discouraging to me,” Nickels said. “I just wanted to remind Tim Kaine that everywhere he goes, people are concerned about this issue, and we’re going
to bring it up over and over and over until it’s resolved.”
Nickels said one of the most important things young students can do is communicate with each other. He said he’s been working to support groups’ on-campus protesting in support of Palestinians, and he was disheartened to see some people on campus not being receptive to them.
Students, many of whom were members of JMU’s College Democrats, also attended the event. Freshman and College Democrats member Joshua Wolfson said of the speeches, Kaine’s resonated the most with him, although he enjoyed hearing from all speakers.
“[Kaine has] been [in Virginia] for a while,” Wolfson said. “He knows what he’s doing, and he did a fantastic job. He really knew what he was saying [and] how to bring it to a crowd.”
Wolfson also said Kaine coming to campus made him “proud of JMU” and added that it shows the Virginia community respects JMU.
Senior and College Democrats member Bella Santos — who worked for Kaine’s Washington, D.C. office in summer 2023 — said she appreciated Democrats uniting for this event. Santos also said Kaine’s speech stuck out to her the most, which she credited to her previous experience with the senator.
“I think he’s a great politician but also a great speaker,” Santos said. “I think it was really great that he was able to come to JMU. It shows he really values our community but also the issues that are more localized. I liked how he also mentioned local campaigns — it shows that he’s willing to bring support to candidates down the ballot.”
The event segued into discussions of election season, beginning with the turn of the seasons — a time Kaine referred to as “the finish line.” For Kaine, fall is an opportunity not only to campaign but to be in an area he said he felt heavily involved in both personally and politically.
“I have so many friends here,” Kaine said. “And having been elected to office at the statewide level since ’01, I’ve worked with these communities. This is an area where I’ve had a lot of personal involvement over the course of my 30 years in elective office.” Lauren Keller contributed to this report.
CONTACT Morgan Blair at breezepress@gmail.com. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on X @TheBreezeJMU and on Instagram @BreezeJMU.
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Abby
Camp & Sixuan Wu
EDITORS EMAIL
By NIMRAT KAUR contributing writer
Needle Juice, Needle Juice, Needle Juice. With a name inspired by the hit 1988 film “Beetlejuice,” a spooky-themed tattoo shop opened on 54 East Market Street in downtown Harrisonburg, just in time for the fall season.
Needle Juice owner Bri Pro started as an apprentice with no tattooing or artistic experience and then worked her way up the ladder. Managing her own tattoo shop has been a dream of her’s ever since she started in the business — a dream that’s now a reality.
“[Opening Needle Juice] has been everything that I want it to be, honestly and truly,” Pro said.
Needle Juice’s opening process has been smooth for Pro, as she’s planned everything precisely to limit obstacles.
Pro left her previous studio to pursue her dream. Saying goodbye to the people she loved there was tough, she said, but Pro said she hopes her loyal clientele will stick by her side as she settles in downtown.
“I knew I had to get it done, [opening Needle Juice is] what I wanted to do, and no one was going to do it for me,” Pro said as
to why she chose to step away and start her own shop.
Chloe Cosner — a provider of cosmetic and gender-affirming services that give clients traditionally masculine or feminine permanent makeup — also works at Needle Juice. She has been tattooing for almost a year and has had a love of artistry since day one.
A Harrisonburg native, Cosner owns New Moon Ink, a studio which now operates inside Needle Juice.
New Moon Ink provides Cosner’s cosmetic expertise alongside tattoos. While New Moon Ink and Needle Juice are essentially different brands, they work together to give clients the best experience possible. The shops and their owners are partners who cooperate and work alongside one another to ensure their businesses thrive.
Both Pro and Cosner strive to make Needle Juice as welcoming as possible for everyone. Pro hopes the shop will be a safe environment where clients can come in and be their truest selves. Her goal is that even those who don’t receive Needle Juice’s services will feel
By MADDIE BALDWIN contributing writer
Purple and yellow clouds rained over the crowd of runners sprinting to the beat of 2000s music during last weekend’s Pack the Park Color Run.
Members of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities joined together on Saturday for the third annual color run — where participants ran or walked approximately two miles with about 800 feet of elevation gain through and around UPark. Pack the Park runners were the first to use this new trail, which connects UPark to the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum.
Sponsored by the University Recreation Center (UREC) and organized by Trey Smith, a JMU coordinator of adventure and camp specialist, and Lindsay Wigderson, JMU’s assistant director for aquatics and safety, the run is an exciting JMU tradition that focuses on running or walking.
The run also offered several other activities including cornhole, spikeball, sand volleyball, basketball and pickleball.
Excitement flowed through the course from both participants and volunteers the moment the event began at noon. Junior biology major Taylor Daniels was among these participants.
“I’m looking forward to the event to get to know more people and be a part of the [Harrisonburg] community,” Daniels said.
After a short dance warm-up party on the field, runners threw purple and gold color packs to begin the bright festivities. Racers gathered in groups and began the course once an announcer called their group number. While running or walking, they passed by color stops to decorate their new white UPark T-shirts received at the beginning of the event. Colorful dust was thrown at the shirts, staining them.
Throughout the course, volunteers wearing purple passed out water and cheered from the sidelines. Refreshments were waiting for the finishers on the other side of the course — including Domino’s pizza and Liquid IV. There were also post-run activities such as a DJ, games and a tie-dye station for their new shirts.
see COLOR RUN, page 12
By GRACE SAWYER The Breeze
Cooking on your own for the first time can be wildly intimidating. Many students struggle with putting together fulfilling, nutritious and simple meals. It can even be hard to figure out the basics, like remembering what temperature to cook chicken.
Nearly all Dukes have had a meal plan, yet many use their punches and Dining Dollars for only meals. Another way to make the most of punches is to use them to get cooking ingredients for your home! All you need is a reusable container and a keen eye, and you can turn D-Hall or Market 64 into a makeshift grocery store.
This year’s new dining policies include All Access Plus, All Access and 14 Punch plans for on-campus students. Commuters can also purchase block plans, which allow students to punch a predetermined amount for the semester.
Some plans only allow punching twice daily. Many students may feel this doesn’t allow them to get enough food during short breaks between classes or if they’re on campus all day; However, they still prefer eating on campus because it’s usually faster, more nutritious and provides a wider range of options compared to off-campus fast food.
What if I told you there was a way to hack the system? If you want to eat healthy, learn how to cook and save money, try getting creative.
Inside D-Hall, students can take ingredients home and use them to create something later, thanks to complimentary reusable to-go boxes. For example, Hen & Harvest has grilled or fried chicken breasts that are a great source of protein for a chicken caesar salad or when paired with your favorite pasta and sauce.
Students can find produce in the fruit section that they can take on the go. Consider taking a couple bananas, apples, pears and oranges back to your dorm or apartment, cutting them up and making a fruit salad for the week.
Another option is a taco bowl. Grab rice and beans from one of the dining halls and some ground beef, taco seasoning, tomatoes, sour cream and cheese from the store. You now have all the ingredients for a delicious dinner!
Students said they were impressed with the course’s rigor and found reward and satisfaction in completing it. Although this event drew out both UREC regulars and newcomers, several attendees said they’re frequenters who enjoy both Pack the Park and UREC for enabling a fit lifestyle. Junior dietetics major Rachel Murie believes UREC is “a good place to better yourself.”
“Don’t be intimidated by the gym. Focus on yourself and not on what others think. You are here to better yourself,” Murie said.
Associate Director for Programs at UREC and organizer of the event Aaron Comb said he believes that fitness “is part of a lifestyle” and a “learned behavior over time.” He said the benefits of an active lifestyle are incredibly important and hopes to share this sentiment with Dukes. Comb participates in this event annually due to his passion for motivating college students into motion.
“[Pack the Park] is a good way to show students that they have access to [UPark] and the trails,” Comb said, “Even though it’s not
competitive, it’s a good way to get students active and introduce them to a healthy lifestyle.”
Although introducing oneself to fitness can be daunting, Comb said students should take advantage of UREC’s variety of programs, such as group exercises, individual training and fitness instructors, so students can find their specific joy in fitness.
“Find your place, find what you enjoy that’s active,” Combs said. “UREC serves as a place to find what you love, whether it be rock climbing or something else.”
For freshman elementary education major and distance runner since third grade Mav McGreevy, Pack the Park was the perfect activity.
“[Exercise] feels good, is a good way to help with anxiety and you get in a good mood after,” McGreevy said.
CONTACT Maddie Baldwin at baldw4mx@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on X @TheBreezeJMU and on Instagram @BreezeJMU.
from NEEDLE JUICE, page 10
comfortable enough to just sit down and relax inside. Its doors are open for anyone who wants to talk or feel seen, she said.
“[Needle Juice’s mission statement is] blending artistry with passion, creating unique, custom tattoos in a safe, welcoming environment that resonates with your personal story,” Pro said.
Cosner’s gender-affirming services add to the inclusive community the two are trying to build and set Needle Juice apart from other shops around town. The services include permanent makeup, such as scalp and facial pigmentation — which can be used to create an effect of a five o’clock shadow — and areola reconstruction for those who have undergone top surgery. Cosner said that while these services don’t replace full gender-affirming surgeries, they’re a more affordable option to help those who want to be seen how they feel.
As a part of the LGBTQ+ community, Cosner wants to better connect with the transgender community, specifically, and build a strong relationship with transgender clients. Both Pro and Cosner said they want LGBTQ+ clients to not feel alone and aim to help them express who they are.
“The trans community can feel very alienated in certain cities,” Cosner said. “Bringing these services to Harrisonburg can [feel] very opening.”
Gender-affirming services aren’t the only resources Cosner provides; she also does eyebrow pigmentation, lip blushing and eyelash enhancements. On top of this, Pro hopes to provide facial piercings to clients in the future. Needle Juice will also have an open booth for guest artists to set up alongside the two.
Needle Juice’s grand opening was Sunday, and for now, Pro’s main goal for the shop is to make it through the year and grow roots to solidify its spot in Harrisonburg. Pro wants
Needle Juice to be a town-wide name and hopes residents familiarize themselves with its location downtown.
Pro has long-term goals as well. This includes a three-to-five year plan, where she hopes Needle Juice will expand into a larger brand. Pro said she hopes to embrace and welcome more artists to her and Cosner’s team. The plan also involves expanding Needle Juice’s maximum capacity. Pro said she aspires to expand the shop physically to hold a larger capacity of artists and customers.
To further this goal, the grand opening included raffles for different services and discounted appointments to attract more customers. Building local clientele is part of Cosner’s plan to secure Needle Juice’s roots in the downtown area and convince more residents to visit, they added. The shop also set up a booth during the Block Party in the ’Burg to connect with Harrisonburg residents and JMU students, further planting themselves in the downtown community.
Both Pro and Cosner said they want to leave a positive impact on JMU and Harrisonburg at large. They said they believe tattoos and cosmetic services are great and empowering forms of self-expression.
“Our whole goal here is to offer a safe, welcoming, passionate environment for people who can come and just hang out if they want to, or just want to come and check out what tattooing is about,” Pro said. “They can just walk right in the door and talk to somebody if they want to. We want to empower people to feel beautiful in their own way, however that may be.”
CONTACT Nimrat Kaur at balgk@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on X @TheBreezeJMU and Instagram @breezejmu.
EDITORS Hayden Hundley & Preston Comer
By HAYDEN HUNDLEY The Breeze
With the abundance of fresh faces playing in a new scheme, there’s a lot to break down from JMU’s Saturday win. With the help of the analytics website Pro Football Focus (PFF), let’s look at what the film tells us about the Dukes’ performance.
PFF grades each player on every play on a scale of -2 to 2 in 0.5 increments. A score of 0 is the standard. PFF then converts those plus-minus grades to a 0-100 scale.
Saturday, the Dukes’ five highest-graded players were redshirt sophomore quarterback Alonza Barnett III, redshirt senior edge Khairi Manns, freshman cornerback KJ Flowe, junior safety Jacob Thomas and redshirt sophomore running back George Pettaway.
Alonza Barnett shows high ceiling
Barnett bounced back from a 1-6 passing start — including one interception and one fumble. Despite these errors, Barnett proved he can be an explosive playmaker.
During his second career start, he had four carries for over 19 yards and three passes for over 33 yards. In passes that were longer than 20 yards, Barnett was 3-4 — but where he needs the most polishing is the short passing game.
“I have to clean up my accuracy short,” Barnett said. “Make the easy things easy, I have to hit that slant to OD [Omarion Dollison] [and] give Tyler Purdy a better ball out the backfield with the swing.”
Despite only completing 10-18 passes, his big-gain plays helped him finish with the ninth-highest PFF grade amongst group of five quarterbacks from last week.
What wasn’t in PFF’s stat sheet, was Barnett’s ability to bait Charlotte’s defensive line to jump over the line of scrimmage; he forced the 49ers to jump offsides twice.
“Obviously, with us not being completely verbal, it’s a little harder,” Barnett said. “You see that in the NFL all the time with the hard counts … so really just emphasizing the clap and making everything look the same.”
Head coach Bob Chesney said Barnett’s interception was “not on him,” because JMU’s staff thought Charlotte was offside on that play, too.
“It looked like they jumped offsides,” Chesney said. “And from the angle, I saw they were offsides, but the ref didn’t see it that way. So in his mind, he’s throwing it up in a free play, but it wasn’t a free play.”
His interception was also his only incomplete pass on throws more than 20 yards down the field. He was blitzed on 59% of his dropbacks but kept his cool. He had a higher passer rating, 104.2, when he was blitzed, compared to when Charlotte only rushed its defensive line.
Barnett showed off just how electric he can be during Saturday’s game. The ball jumps out of his hand, especially when he’s throwing deep, and he has unique speed as a runner. For now, he should continue developing his short and intermediate passing as his volume of dropbacks increases.
According to PFF, JMU was the third worst tackling team in the FBS last week with a poor grade of 36.9.
Defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill primarily used a 4-2-5 formation with two linebackers on the field, and on Saturday, he occasionally used three linebackers.
However, the only time he used three linebacker packages was with the trio of sophomore Gannon Weathersby, redshirt senior Taurus Jones and graduate Raymond Scott.
Those latter two players had a run defense grade below 30, and Jones missed all four of his attempted tackles.
Junior Trent Hendrick and redshirt senior Jacob Dobbs are the Dukes’ starters and will play the majority of the snaps. But in a 4-2-5, teams need linebacker depth because the two that are playing have to cover a lot of ground.
It’s too soon to over-correct about a Week 1 performance, but the linebackers behind Dobbs and Hendrick could use some shifting around.
On the bright side for the Dukes, some players shined as tacklers. Jacob Thomas was the highest-graded run defending safety in the group of 5 and fifth highest in the FBS last week. Khairi Manns led the Dukes with eight tackles, without missing any attempts.
The Dukes also struggled to tackle on kick coverage, as Charlotte returned four kicks for 112 yards.
During offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy and Hemphill’s first game as Dukes, there’s plenty to take away about what the two playcallers’ strategies are all about.
Firstly, Hemphill dialed up 16 blitzes on 50 of redshirt sophomore quarterback Max Brown’s dropbacks, and Hendrick and Dobbs sacked Brown on two of those. According to PFF, JMU pressured 10 of Brown’s dropbacks, which can certainly be improved upon.
Dobbs was the Dukes’ most effective pass rusher on Saturday, winning 67% of his rushes. It’s promising for JMU that its blitzes have been effective, but it’ll need growth from its defensive line if it wants to form a formidable pass rush.
The most effective pass rusher off the line was Mann, winning 22% of his rushes.
Despite both of the Dukes’ sacks going to inside linebackers, Mann is still confident that they can generate pressure with just a four-man rush.
“Four men, three men, if we want to bring six, however, Coach Hemp [Hemphill] drills it up we’ll get home,” Manns said. “So we just got to keep working and keep executing the X’s and O’s, and we’ll be good from there.”
Hemphill and his defense’s best achievements were the three turnovers they forced — and it could’ve been more. Junior cornerback Chauncey Logan dropped two interceptions.
Offensively, Kennedy showed a variety of
formations, including 12-personnel, which featured two tight ends and went five wide at times. None of the tight ends had very productive outings, but Barnett singled out redshirt junior Logan Kyle’s versatility to line up in and outside, making him a selfproclaimed “Swiss army knife.”
Kyle had a chance to come down with a touchdown on Saturday but the pass was broken up on fourth down. Barnett also mentioned George Pettaway as a player who benefits from Kennedy’s scheme.
Barnett threw a 33-yard touchdown to Pettaway on Saturday, marking their first touchdowns as Dukes.
“Obviously, we have guys that can go all over the place, everybody’s a Swiss army knife,” Barnett said. “I want everybody to feel appreciated and [to] get that love but just within the scheme and the way that this offense works, that’s going to happen within itself if I do my job.”
Kennedy only called one screen pass, which is surprising considering Barnett’s an inexperienced quarterback who you want to give easy passes. Kennedy also called two jet sweeps — when you hand the ball off to a pass catcher out of the backfield. One of them paid off, as redshirt senior Cam Ross found 41 yards of green grass in front of him and the other, lost two yards on a third down.
While only one worked, Kennedy should continue incorporating more unique running plays, especially when the Dukes are being shut down. Redshirt senior running back Ayo Adeyi, who had 17-29 of the running backs’ carries, only averaged 2.4 yards per carry.
Despite the tough day for Adeyi on Saturday, Chesney said the Dukes were “pretty close” to how much they wanted to divvy up the carries.
“I think they’re all very, very capable, and I thought they did a decent job,” Chesney said. “We just got to open it up a little more. We had a great start to the week, and we just got to make sure that shows up on Saturday.”
CONTACT Hayden Hundley at breezesports@gmail.com. For more football coverage, follow the sports desk on X and Instagram @TheBreezeSports.
By PRESTON COMER
The Breeze
JMU football will play its Saturday home opener against Gardner-Webb at 6 p.m. Whether this is your first game at Bridgeforth or your last home opener as a student, here are some important tips for this weekend.
Throwing streamers when the Dukes score is a tradition at Bridgeforth, but you have to be careful about how you throw them or JMU could be penalized with a flag.
Do: Bring streamers and throw them up and back.
Don’t: Throw streamers toward or onto the field.
During the Sun Belt Conference, JMU Director of Athletics Matt Roan listed numerous items that can't be thrown onto the field, including streamers.
Do: Be prepared to reserve your student tickets once they’re available.
Don’t: Try to sell or transfer student tickets. Student tickets are available Tuesday at 9 a.m. two weeks before the game. Tickets sell out fast, so make sure to have the website pulled up before they’re available.
Do: Return tickets if plans change.
Don’t: No show/not use your ticket.
If plans change and you can’t attend the game, you can return your student ticket. If
you don’t return your ticket and no-show twice, you won’t be able to reserve student tickets for the remainder of the season.
Last year, JMU Athletics announced that it changed some of the stipulations around alcohol purchases. You no longer need to get a wristband before purchasing an alcoholic beverage from concessions, but you must provide identification showing you’re at least 21.
No one can buy more than two alcoholic beverages in one transaction, and sales end after the third quarter.
JMU Athletics also prohibits outside alcohol from being brought into Bridgeforth. If you bring drinks in, you will be removed from the game.
Do: Check the JMU football socials and your Dukes email for the game’s color theme.
Don’t: Show up wearing the wrong color! JMU has themes for three of its six home games:
Whiteout vs. Coastal Carolina on Oct. 10
Purple out vs. Southern Miss on Oct. 26
Blackout vs. Georgia State on Nov. 9
For all other home games, JMU Athletics encourages fans to wear purple.
CONTACT Preston Comer at breezesports@gmail. com. For more football coverage, follow the sports desk on X and Instagram @TheBreezeSports.
Want to praise someone or get something off your chest? Darts & Pats is the place to do it. Submit your own at breezejmu.org.
A “girls-wanna-havefun” pat to the car jamming out on top of Warsaw Parking Deck.
From someone who just wants to drive to class with her friends.
A “what-was-thereason” dart to the people that stole the thermostats out of my house.
From someone nice enough to throw a party who just wants AC in this heat.
A “good-luck” pat to the JMU football team at their first home game this weekend.
From a fanbase that supports you, win or lose.
A “fun-times” pat to LineLap and Harrisonburg for putting on an amazing senior bar crawl.
From someone who had a blast with their friends on Saturday.
MAYA SKURSKI Opinion Editor
A 2021 Yale University study found that American Sign Language (ASL) is now the third-most commonly taught language in American colleges and universities and is among the most-used languages in the United States.
Popularity like this inspired JMU students to take notice in 2023. In March of that year, the Student Government Association (SGA) passed a Bill of Opinion that supported the implementation of ASL courses at JMU under the foreign language classification. The courses fell under the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) — where they still remain exclusively available for CSD students.
As ASL continues to capture attention with its rich history and unique expressions, JMU has a golden opportunity to honor its values of inclusivity by placing ASL in its foreign language department, which will, in turn, make it accessible to more students rather than just those within the Department of CSD.
By embracing this change originally proposed by the SGA, JMU not only holds itself accountable on an academic excellence level but also celebrates the deaf community's unique linguistic archives as a whole. This offers students a chance to engage with an entirely new demographic of Americans. JMU prides itself on the values of inspiration, collaboration, results, relationships, integrity and inclusion, according to the University Advancement. Incorporating ASL into the Department of Foreign Language, Literatures and Cultures instead of the Department of CSD, would not only grow on-campus linguistic diversity but also reflect a progressive and
inclusive standard the university already claims to hold itself to.
Many people incorrectly believe that ASL is the signed version of English; however, that isn't necessarily the case. ASL is a complex and independent language with its own structures, rules, grammar and forms of expression.
The world hosts over 70 million deaf people using sign language as their main form of communication, and while ASL stems from Old French Sign Language, there are now 300 different sign languages. This evolved over the years and created communication throughout communities with hearing impairments, creating various dialogues of this language and giving it a culture deeper than a disability.
JMU defines its Department of CSD as a preparation to pursue graduate work in speech-language, pathology or audiology. In contrast, its foreign languages department is equipped to prepare students to engage with an increasingly globalized world through the intensive study of languages. Clearly, ASL aligns much closer with the department’s mission, offering more cultural immersion rather than the Department of CSD’s specialized jurisdiction.
This idea is nothing new. One JMU honors project dating back to 2016 makes the same proposal, and the idea has only picked up momentum.
The enthusiastic on-campus push from both JMU’s ASL Club in 2021 and the SGA to get the language included in the foreign language department is only the beginning. When so much effort has already gone into normalizing ASL, it argues: Why doesn’t JMU join leaders
in inclusivity by not only incorporating ASL as a part of the Foreign Language Department, but also by making it a major and minor just as Spanish and French are?
This minor would also be incredibly applicable beyond the Department of CSD. For example, teaching majors would be able to communicate with hard-ofhearing students, and public policy majors could gain a better understanding deaf citizens needs. JMU could be ground zero for positive change — in fact, calls for JMU to implement an ASL major or minor date as far back as 2014, according to past articles published by The Breeze.
The deaf community deserves to have its language and culture acknowledged on the same level as others — not be confined to one designated to disorders. Respect and inclusion need to be given to this community for JMU to provide its diverse student body with an excellent education. As ASL continues to gain academic prominence nationwide, JMU has a chance to hop on a n inclusivity bandwagon with the likes of U.Va., demonstrating an example of academic excellence that embraces all forms of linguistic expression. It’s time for JMU to answer the call to implement ASL in its foreign language department as well as establish a major and minor pathway to make a more inclusive campus.
CONTACT Maya Skurski at breezeopinion@gmail.com. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on X @Thebreezejmu and on Instagram @Breezejmu.
A critique of cumulative finals: Why should students have to dread the last week all semester?
Even at the beginning of the school year, finals week is dreaded by every student. The wave of anxiety, stress and cramming defines the last few weeks of the semester and permeates the entire school season. Students pull all-nighters, spend their days studying and hope all their efforts result in good grades for their classes.
Cumulative finals have long defined the college experience, and they’re starting to become overly detrimental to students’ entire college experience. The overwhelming nature of several all-encompassing, massive final exams brings unnecessary stress into the college environment, especially during the final few weeks of a semester that should be used for celebration. It’s unhelpful and unproductive when students attempt to remember all the details of their classes from the whole semester.
Cumulative finals aren’t the best way to encourage students to learn and should be avoided whenever possible.
Ryan Alessi, an assistant professor in JMU’s School of Media Arts and Design, said there are still valid reasons to keep cumulative exams for college classes.
“A course that builds upon the content step-by-step throughout the semester would almost have to have a cumulative exam,” Alessi said.
He added that the differing nature of all courses taught at JMU means there is “no
one-size-fits-all approach to structuring a course or creating an exam.” He said he believes the format of a class will depend on the course itself and what the professor thinks is best.
This complex demand on professors to develop an intriguing and rigorous curriculum, including exams, can make cumulative finals a necessary evil. It’s not an easy task to manage, especially for a wide range of students with different learning styles. Most professors understand that students are trying to balance their entire course load with their everyday lives.
The issue of these exams isn‘t professors not serving their students, but an academic system that uses cumulative finals as a crutch. That doesn’t encourage sustainable, stress-free learning.
A full-time JMU student is enrolled in a minimum of 12 credit hours, meaning there could be at least four final exams they would be responsible for completing. Therefore the student needs to recall the entire content of four separate courses in different fields of study, all during one week of exams.
This demand is unreasonable and counterproductive to students’ learning processes. There’s no need for the extra see FINALS, page 20
from FINALS, page 19
work overwhelming finals add to students’ plates in the name of course progression. Encouraging learning involves more than simply demanding students keep all the information from their studies readily available. Learning is more than stuffing one’s brain full of information, only to dispose of it to make room for the next subject — it takes many forms beyond a single exam.
Finals week is the continuation of a student’s progression since a midterm exam. However, if the midterm is supposed to test your knowledge of the first eight weeks of the course, the last exam should only focus on the final eight weeks, not all 16. Students can reference or pull from the course’s entirety during a final exam, regardless of whether or not it’s cumulative.
The daunting task of digging out all the information for multiple courses over the entire semester is simply unsustainable. Battling finals week’s neverending stress and anxiety doesn’t engrain the course in a student’s brain; It’s just a week where students overwhelm themselves with facts, then dump it all out once the week is complete. From a student’s perspective, a cumulative final exam isn’t an opportunity to demonstrate everything they’ve learned but serves as another painful moment of cramming.
CONTACT Riley Kilcarr at kilcarmr@dukes.jmu. edu. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on X @Thebreezejmu and on Instagram @Breezejmu.
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Patti Varol
ACROSS 1 “Well done!” 6 Album insert, briefly
Amazon or Adidas
Discussion theme
Tumult
Like some Hitchcock scenes
Like the taste of 23- and 25-Down
Hoop edge 19 Lacking company 20 Exciting end to a baseball game 23 Collect $200 in Monopoly 26 Radial, to a Brit
“What __ the odds?”
28 __-ray: video format
29 Valuable mineral 31 “Descendants: The Rise of Red” star Rita 33 Review class notes, e.g. 38 Devoted fan, in slang 39 Settle the bill 40 Follow closely behind 43 Grammatical flaw that may be fixed with a semicolon 48 Underwater vessel 49 __ Paulo, Brazil
Barbie’s bae 51 Rep for NY-14
Top Olympic prize 57 Wallet holders 59 Welcome break in one’s routine, or the progression found at the starts of 20-, 33-, and 43-Across 62 1950s FLOTUS 63 Actor Mahershala 64 URL letters next to a padlock icon 68 Put up, as a skyscraper 69 __ Geo Wild 70 Use the back end of a pencil 71 Department with quotas, maybe
Farm pen
__ boom
“Mic Drop” K-pop septet
By Ajay Bhargava
One of 15 in a typical daily crossword
Donkey Kong, for one
YouTube units
Stop sign shape
The “P” of PRNDL
“D’oh! Why did I do that!?”
Snug
Save the day
Transfer to a new city, casually
Cologne feature
John __ tractors
Legends and such
Flight booking word
Sammies with two spreads
So, so much
Icing ingredient
Network that airs Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest
Museo display
Heavy burden
More, in Spanish
Spots on potatoes
Bronx team, familiarly
Drink whose logo has frosted letters
Woodwind section member
California wine
Deeply moves
Topmost points
“The Parent Trap” actress Maureen
Sunbather’s goal
Pitchfork-shaped Greek letter
“Just gimme a __!”
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